A radar system operates by transmitting electromagnetic signals and receiving these signals after they have been reflected from targets. However, besides the reflections from the wanted targets, such as an aircraft, reflections from other unwanted objects occur. These unwanted objects are referred to as clutter and generally include terrain features such as hills, cliffs and man made objects such as buildings. Because the structures making up the clutter have varying heights, for a given clutter field in front of a radar system, one can minimize the blinded areas in the radar's scan area by adjusting the elevation angle of the radar. Since the radar can not detect targets of interest that are in the blinded area, minimizing the blinded area maximizes the effectiveness of the radar system.
Setting a radar system's elevation angle accurately requires both training and experience. The most accurate way to set the elevation angle is to use a clutter map (a map showing the bird's eye view of what the radar can and can not see in the scan area) generated by the radar processor software and manually set the elevation angle that will provide maximum coverage in the scan region. When using a third party application software to control the radar, however, it is often not possible to allocate sufficient bandwidth necessary to pass the clutter map data to the radar operator and it is not possible or difficult for the operator to set the radar system to the optimum elevation.